


"Insomnoise"

by MattD



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28187406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MattD/pseuds/MattD
Summary: Nico is having trouble to sleep and so is Will, so they just cuddle and talk about what's keeping them awake. There are mentions of Hazel, Jason, Reyna and the Apollo cabin.As a suggestion, I think this fic would be better off if accompanied by Björk's song Undo, or any other from her beautiful album Vespertine
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	"Insomnoise"

Those things, those scrawny little bug-like noises that rambled through Nico’s ears at night, they seemed so apart, and yet so close to Nico’s world. Whispers, laments, desperate cries for help, grievances, solitaire wimps… and then just inhuman voices: minor Underworld deities laughing over some disgrace, Tartarus himself echoing, in lust for merging with his full darkness, and sounds Nico wasn’t even sure he had heard before. 

“What is this?”, he thought “Why do these murmuring nightmares come to lull me every night?” It was 1 AM at Camp. Silence, only silence. 

Not a soul was awake. The night was dark as it could be, no signs of stars – the clouds took them all. Only the moon was in the sky, bright as ever. Nico dismissed his nightmare-filled pillow and got to his window. The Moon, the one who took his beloved sister Bianca away from him, and here he was, admiring its pale and delicate light. 

Will Solace walked by and Nico got startled, again. Nico can sense life-spams and with time, that also came to mean that whenever someone enters a space of at least 6 to 7 meters ratio on him, he can sense them immediately. 

This tricky bastard, on the other hand, can always just pass right away from his radar. Nico can’t really figure out the logic behind that, but lucky thing that this guy is his boyfriend. If this was a sneak attack made by a cunning enemy, Nico would be dead by now. Lucky for him again, his boyfriend seemed like he wanted to cuddle.

“Can we cuddle?”, he said

“Fine”, Nico replied, “but I’m not on one of my best nights here.”

Will yawned and made his way to the bed. Good thing Nico had an extra pillow for Hazel – even though it was more common for him to go to Camp Jupiter than the other way.

“It’s ok” – Will mumbled through the pillow – “I’ll stay here by your side.”

Will pat his hand on the bed, half asleep. It was like a gentle “hurry up, I want you here”.

Nico laughed and just went by.

“So...” – Will turned back to look at his boyfriend – “why can’t you sleep?”

“Insomnoise.”

That was their term. Nico had long ago confided to Will about his nights and the noises he listens to. 

Will got it.

“Well” – the blond said – “I’m here cause a cricket woke me up.”

Nico looked at him like “what?”, and he elaborated:

“It was too loud, and you know I’m a light-sleeper. Everyone in the Apollo cabin has one of those mobile CD-players, but I don’t. Forgot mine in Texas. So the cricket woke me up and I couldn’t sleep”. – he paused for a second, looking on the corner of his eyes, and then added, “Oh... yeah, and I kinda missed cuddling with you. It’s been a while. So I figured I’d give it a shot.” 

Nico wondered for a bit. 

“You know, now that you’ve mentioned crickets, I think I can hear one from here. But it doesn’t sound loud, not at all."

“Yeah, from here, it’s quite a pleasant sound, innit? Oh, and there’s this soft melody on the grass. The winds are generous tonight.”

"Agreed. And I can hear some rattling by the trees, very calming. Funny how I wasn’t listening to that before.”

Will soon fell asleep. Nico could hear his boyfriend’s heart thumping against his chest, which would go up and down as his breathing went into a soothing, slow-paced cadence. He could listen to an occasional snore, the sounds his skin and clothing made when he moved a leg or an arm. He could even hear Will’s veins pumping blood all over his body if he paid genuine attention to it.

As he was falling asleep, he could feel the “Insomnoise” coming back, but he remembered who he was. A child of the Underworld, no doubt, but also a human being, who needs sleep in order to function. He was just like his boyfriend: blood pumping, heart beating, lungs breathing air in and out. 

Some of those underworld-ly noises might be his business too, but they don’t define him. He might be a demigod, but he is also a human. 

He did a trick Bianca taught him when he was a kid. She would make Nico rub his own fingertips close to his ear, and it produced a sand-like hearing sensation. He remembered telling her:

“Bianca, this is weird, how can I sleep like that?”

And she used to tell him:

“One day, you’ll get it”

Nowadays, Nico believes he kinda gets it, even if it indeed has been effective before on numerous ocasions, and Nico could never really grasp onto why it works. It was just rubby, rubby, and his eyelids would get heavier. The sound itself was a silly almost-paradox – small fingertips pressed against each other making a "big sound" by just being placed close to his ears. For Nico, right now, it’s a perspective exercise, and it calms him down.

He decides to listen to his heartbeat before he goes to sleep. Thumping after thumping, Nico recognizes his own pattern, and he is caught thinking about Bianca, about Hazel, about Will, about Jason and Reyna, about all of them. Soon, the pattern gets slower, and he pays attention to his own breathing. The noises threaten to resurface here and there, but in general, they’re far away now. They’re like Will’s cricket. From this distance, Nico thinks he can manage them tomorrow, but for the rest of the night, he has other plans. 

And how will he manage them and what plans does he have for tonight? You’ll need to ask Nico Di Angelo tomorrow, for now, he’s sleeping sheepishly, with a hint of a smile on his face. You wouldn’t want to wake him up, would you, dear reader?


End file.
